In a deep-dive exposé, The Washington Post reports that Trump officials are accused of having defied one in three judges who have ruled against the administration, leading one legal expert to suggest America may be just “steps” away from a Constitutional crisis.
“A comprehensive analysis of hundreds of lawsuits against Trump policies shows dozens of examples of defiance, delay and dishonesty, which experts say pose an unprecedented threat to the U.S. legal system,” the Post reported.
The Trump administration has been “accused of defying court orders in roughly one-third of the more than 160 lawsuits filed against the administration that resulted in substantive judicial rulings,” according to the Post’s analysis by its Supreme Court reporter Justin Jouvenal, “raising concerns about widespread noncompliance with the American legal system.”
Jouvenal says he “read all 337 lawsuits against the Trump administration.” Detailing his report on social media, he wrote: “How are Trump officials allegedly defying judges? The review found a long list of accusations: Snubbing orders, [withholding] evidence, creating pretexts to carry out actions that have been blocked, offering false and misleading information in court and more.”
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Of the 337 lawsuits against the Trump administration reviewed by the Post, “courts had ruled against the administration in 165 of the lawsuits.”
Some of the cases the Post examined are well known to many Americans.
One example is the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was sent to the country’s notorious maximum-security prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), despite a binding court order prohibiting his removal.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return to the United States.
“Abrego remained there for almost two months, withthe administration saying there was little it could do because he was under control of a foreign power,” the Post reported, adding that “recent filings in the case reveal that El Salvador told the United Nations that the U.S. retained control over prisoners sent there.”
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote the Trump administration had “failed to respond in good faith, and their refusal to do so can only be viewed as willful and intentional noncompliance,” according to the Post.
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In April, Politico reported that “Xinis also accused the administration of mischaracterizing the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier … requiring the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from El Salvador’s custody.”
In response to the Post’s report, noted Professor of Politics Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, called it a “[shocking] pattern of defiance of the judiciary by Trump Administration.”
Prominent attorney Mark Zaid—an expert in national security law, constitutional free speech, whistleblower protections, and government accountability—issued a stark warning:
“Steps closer to true constitutional crisis. I, for one, think it is just a matter of when, rather than if, Trump Administration will disobey [a] Supreme Court order.”
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